The Farm is the Engine of our National Lives

This is a direct quote from the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.  This is an “actual fact,” the absolute truth!  Many of us don’t think to much of the farm or farming.  But we “love” to eat!  We eat so much that obesity has become a pandemic!  However, most of that so-called food did not come from the farm, but a factory!  Our history as slaves on the plantation was so cruel that when emancipation was enacted many Black people migrated to the northern states with the quickness!  On the plantation we farmed, from can’t see to can’t see I heard!  So today, we don’t want to farm, not even for ourselves.

However, there were many other Black people that stayed in the South after emancipation and accumulated nearly 20 million acres of land.  On this land, they farmed, built towns, and established community.  They not only survived, they thrived!  Unfortunately, all of the towns that we built were destroyed by whites.  My people were captured and brought here to be the slaves of white people and not to be free to build civilization for ourselves so was the mindset of whites! 

From the farm comes food.  From the farm comes the raw material for clothing.  From the farm comes the raw material to construct houses and other buildings.  Thus, the farm is the “leadoff batter” in establishing industry or industries for a nation.  The farm is on land, so land is the key!  Without land there is no farm!  You can grow food inside a building (factory) with no soil, but what is the quality of that food?  Agriculture is about the land, cultivation of land.  Clay comes from the land.  That clay can be formed, shaped and fired in a kiln and made into bricks.  In the Bible, Pharaoh demanded that the children of Israel make bricks without straw.  Go figure!  The engine for the three necessities of life, food, clothing and shelter is the farm!  The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said that “everybody eats!”  The doctor eats, the attorney eats, the engineer eats, the president eats, the king eats, the ruler eats so why look down on the farmer when he/she is feeding everybody?  Farming is the first profession, ordained by the Lord of the Worlds